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Flickering: Dawn
This was written by Sebastion for the Fanfiction with a Twist Contest! This short story features Moonbow with iconic guest stars among the likes of Sapphire, the universe hopper, and canon characters Moonwatcher and Peacemaker that have been claimed for my own devices! Hopefully the first of a few fanfics about Moonbow! Following them as they assert themself into their community and realize that they can and do, in fact, belong. “And please remember to give this back before class ends. Don’t pretend I didn’t notice the SeaWing coins going missing.” The teacher’s hisses only barely broke Moonbow out of their daydreams. They blinked a few times before they finally tore their eyes away from the Pyrrhian map with annotations of current events and notable tidbits of recent history in certain places. The hybrid repositioned their stiff wings, daring not to extend them on the chance Ms. Willow felt the need to call on them. They wiggled their short tail to try to help their sore back but, alas, their bones agonized as they did before. The clay tablet with parchment laid over before them was blank, aside from offhand notes they picked up on. They froze, glancing up at Willow’s chalkboard as she began to dust off the lessons to make more. With a terribly sinking feeling in their gut, they rolled up the paper to hide their lack of awareness. Their eyes flicked over the sea of scales and fur and feathers around them in the tightly packed history classroom. NightWings, RainWings, hybrids between the two, they all seemed to have been paying attention to what Ms. Willow had been saying about animus dragons. Moonbow curled their wings in tight as red embarrassment beat through their ears. Good moons above, Moon, it’s not that hard, they told themself as they scribbled down the new notes on the chalkboard without absorbing them. Willow’s class is actually interesting. They stopped writing and their eyes widened as they side-eyed their classmates. They weren’t sure if any mindreading NightWing dragonets were paying attention. Guiltily they looked up at the board and actually read it. But Ms. Willow reading it aloud cut them off promptly before they could acknowledge it. “To continue the significance of animus dragons, what are some tomes in recent history that common dragons are aware of?” A RainWing’s talon shot up before Moon could think. “The Eye of Onyx.” The teacher gestured for them to explain. “It was destroyed at the end of the SandWing Succession, but Jerboa…? Had enchanted it to keep capable SandWing heirs on the throne.” “It blows dragons up.” Another voice mentioned, and a few dragons chuckled. “Mmm,” Willow hummed. “Any others?” A NightWing arm, dappled with rainbow scales, tentatively raised. “Finder?” Willow pointed them out. Anxiously, they held up a star-cut, blue gemstone that the teacher has passed out and said, “The Dreamvisitors? They were made to enter the dreams of other dragons… Didn’t The Fathom or Darkstalker make them?” She nodded, her tail flicked and purple starbursts covering her tired pale orange scales. “Yes, exactly, that’s what I was looking for.” She began writing on the board, next to her sketch of the gem. “The Dreamvisitors were significant in many ways but mostly for the Dragonets of Destiny in particular. They helped acquire Queen Moorhen’s favor and eventually end the war. The Dragonets had also used them to stay in contact, and deal with the, er, The Darkstalker threat a while back.” A few NightWings went a bit quiet, but the teacher’s clicking chalk scribbled on. Moon tried to follow along but they had a trembling sensation in their talon and when they turned their head, the dragonet sitting next to them passed them the gently glowing gem. Hmmmm. They eyed it suspiciously, but carefully took it. Their vision blanked as if they blinked, and reality fizzled, as the images of an imposing MudWing held herself up as she tried deciphering scrolls and studying, while just as imposing but less decorated dragons seemed to be dying around her. Moon tried to move backward, but when their eyes saw their paws, rather, talons, they recognized the dusty gold of claws of the modern legend, Sun Beetle, or Sunny, from the paintings all over the school. Their heart tremored against their chest as their head jerked back and they awoke from their sweven. They clenched their talon around the Dreamvisitor and its points dug into their paw pads. Their classmate had already turned back to their notes, unaware of the sight Moon had just seen. Moonbow shook their head and glanced back down at the Dreamvisitor, letting its reflection flicker in the light and quickly passing it to the dragonet next to them. They shuttered, but in the distance, they heard a gong. Moon let out a sigh of relief as they picked up their school work. The teacher cleared her throat and her scales shifted to a more vibrant shade of orange again. “All right, please keep this in mind over break! Study your notes and we’ll pick up on titular enchanted objects when we come together. That will wrap up the animus unit,” Willow explained, dusting off the chalkboard again as the dragonets around her rose and funneled out of the room. “Off to the Feast and Festival assembly?” Willow asked, as Moon waited for the walking isles to clear. She caught them in the eyes to confirm that she was talking to them. They nodded. “I’m meeting up with Moonwatcher! We get together for, y’know, the moon blessed ability group. She was going to get me out of the crowded area, since skyfire stones don’t really work for me.” “Oh, I’m jealous,” Willow said. “Moonwatcher’s very generous. Hmph. She seemed so much more quiet as a dragonet, you know? I mean, she’s rather reserved, as you’ve probably noticed in her sessions, but you remind me of her when she was young.” “Were you her teacher?” “Moons! I’m not that old, Mx. Bow,” she chuckled. “But she participated in a lot of projects around Paradise. The village wouldn’t have been the same without such a fresh-minded NightWing on board.” She swished her tail over to her desk as she took her snack and began peeling an orange with an elegant movement of her tail constricting the fruit, without juicing it. “The Festival?” Moon asked. The dragoness gestured with a talon as she perched behind her own desk and began eating her orange. “An adjacent to it. But… maybe it was Peacemaker that seemed to cause her burst of confidence. She’s practically an aunt of his, with how much Hope had her around while he was so young,” she commented. “Raising him seemed to be something of a transformation - a metonia of her shy ways.” Are you trying to say something about me? Moonbow couldn’t help but spitefully think before they puffed their fur and shook their head. “I’d better head to find her before she leaves without me,” they said, scooping up their scrolls. “See you around!” “Have a lovely weekend, dear,” the RainWing called, scooping up the Dreamvisitor in her talons, muttering something as they left. Moonbow huffed as they rushed out the door, anticipation seizing their talons and suddenly making them slow down. I hope that wasn’t rude of me how I left. They tried not to slow their pace and they kicked off the ground to keep up with the crowd of rainforest dragons in the hallway. As they eyed their place in the ground, the intricately woven walls of vines and wood keeping the school together seemed to flex ever so slightly with the weight of the sudden commission before the Feast and Festival Assembly. Part of them always forgot that Queen Glory’s Palace School was suspended within a tree garden in the first place. They turned the corner towards the assembly dome, which was practically a room with an opening in the floor in which tree branches made up bleachers and guests or speech givers announced their pieces. The hallways were getting quieter as they took the back way that Moonwatcher told them to go. They practically ran into her as their mind went blank to remember where to go. The NightWing squeaked and in response Moon gasped and recoiled. The older dragon regained her composure and cheerfully said, “Oh! It’s you.” She fluttered her wings and extended a winged arm to let Moonbow walk ahead of her. “Did you consider my offer?” The hybrid’s heart sank. Volunteering. They completely forgot to plan for it besides the initial panic of responsibility when Moonwatcher first asked. They laughed, a nervous grin curling across their muzzle. “N - yes! I, er, was interested it’s just… I’m not sure if I know anyone and I wouldn’t want to get in the way.” They thought they heard Ms. Moon’s own fur fluff and she directed a sympathetic look. “Nonsense, it’s volunteering. It’s hard to get any help outside of the Rainforest Capitals. Besides… I thought you mentioned a Sapphire? She offered to volunteer, and I’m not even sure how she caught wind of it….” Blinking a few times, they felt a bit of excitement make their shifting wing colors accelerate a tad. “She will? Sapphire as in… the SkyWing hybrid?” “I believe so! I thought it’d help to have someone you know volunteering as well. Considering I’ll be busy with the scheduling and menus with the other adults.” Moonbow glanced down at their talons. “I’m still a little hesitant, even if it’d be great to see Sapphire more often.” “I understand!” Moonwatcher paused, and when Moonbow looked up, they realized they were at the entrance of the back hall’s entrance to the assembly gardens. “I was going to introduce you to Peacemaker and wait until after the assembly to see what you think anyway. I don’t have all the information, surprisingly.” Moonbow froze. “We were going to meet up with Peacemaker?” She made a small gesture with her talon. “Afterwards. He’s a little busy but he was interested in meeting you. You’re a wonderful student, I gush about you and a couple of other clairvoyant rainforest students to him sometimes.” Moonbow’s fur rose. “But - But I didn’t realize we were actually going to talk to him personally about helping with the Festival, y-y’know?” Moonwatcher softly chuckled and said, “He’s done a lot for the Kingdom but he’s no different than any of your other senior classmates.” She carefully extended a talon and continued, “He’s going to make an appearance to talk about the students needed for volunteer work. I’ll introduce you two afterward! It’s really simple, we mainly need a few dragonets willing to clean up the main clearing.” But it’s Peacemaker, Moon thought, staring down at the elder Moon’s talons. They bit their lip and looked up at her face, her teardrop scale twinkling in the filtering sunlight, her eyes casting a knowing gaze. Not that he’s any better than anyone he’s just... very important to know!!! I thought it was hard for Queen Glory’s schedules to mesh with his. “Queen Glory isn’t a volunteer to clean up the Starlaying Clearing. She’s not a student at the school and she’s busy as well,” Moonwatcher said simply in response to their thoughts. Moonbow’s eyes glanced around and noticed the lack of dragons, aside from the other Festival and Feast organizers. They wondered if it helped to be in a slightly quieter room to read minds. “It does help,” Moonwatcher answered. When Moonbow shot her a look, she softly chuckled and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, a force of habit with other sixth sense dragonets.” “I can’t read minds, though! My sense is all mixed up!” Moonbow smiled teasingly at their own self. “Part of why Peacemaker is so excited to meet you!” Moonbow sighed and went quiet. Alright. They finally touched Moonwatcher’s talon, looking up at her face with their goofy smile, until their head started to throb. They blinked a few times, wondering if they were lightheaded until a vision flashed between their eyes. An ancient scroll, with tears and stains, crossed out lines and increasingly shabbier writing. The sound of Moonwatcher’s arguing with a voice that Moonbow couldn’t hear stung their ears and they recoiled. Fire enveloped the scroll and they finally joined reality again. Moonwatcher stared at Moonbow with wide eyes. She yanked her talon away and exhaled nervously. “Ahah, um. Go sit towards the closest row of seats and I’ll come get you after the assembly.” She seemed just as shaken as Moonbow. Her teardrop scale glittered again. They were too frazzled to give her proper salutations and too confused to react at all. They simply nodded and slowly flapped onto a branch towards the front of the assembly, with the lecture platform the closest to their level. A NightWing with plain dark scales and a RainWing with extremely dull scales were the first to walk on the speech platform. The ancient RainWing was obviously trying to make an effort to brighten his scale colors. Moonbow tried to place their names. They had something to do with Queen Glory. Deathbringer and Handsome? Moonbow shuddered at the sound of the former’s name. Their eyes drooped, the feeling of a sleepless night’s exhaustion crept in under their fur. But they weren’t tired. And their head continued to throb like a vision was coming. Closing their eyes only seemed to make it harder to relax. Duke Handsome started speaking. He mentioned something about thanking the other ex-queens for assisting the plans and feast and Sir Deathbringer explained the history and his own appreciation for Queen Glory helping to set up this project again this year. But throughout the entire opening dialogue, Moonbow’s headache with a sudden sense of lethargy. It was almost impossible to absorb anything they were saying. They were sure there were a few more speakers. They recognized Moonwatcher and the brightly colored Kinkajou interrupting to say a few words, and they heard dragons laughing. But all Moonbow could hear were the cries of a distressed Moonwatcher on a mountain peak of the Claws of Clouds mountain range. They shuttered, but finally, their headache pierced behind their eyes and they involuntarily looked up. The NightWing with rainbow freckled scales and a curled tail balanced himself upon a branch and hopped onto the platform with Moonwatcher and Duke Handsome. “This year we - we’re really going to need a couple extra volunteers. If you all recall the storm that knocked down the trunks of the, er, the Starlaying clearing. We already have a few volunteers from outside of Paradise, the old RainWing capital, but all the help we can get would be fantastic.” Moonbow clutched the branch beneath them nervously. They weren’t sure if they were going to be sick but their brain ached. They watched Peacemaker lecture. He seemed to trip over his words but dragonets seemed to quiet down and listen to him nonetheless. Their eyes flicked between the captivated dragons and the anxious older dragonet on the stage. Finally, they heard dragons clapping and Moonwatcher squinting as she tried to direct dragonets out of the gardens. Moonbow closed their eyes for a few moments, trying the breathing exercises that Moonwatcher had previously taught them. They only worked for a moment. When dragons cleared out of their way, Moon stumbled and almost fell right through the branches of the garden, but caught themself just before they slipped. “Are you okay, Moonbow?” the familiar, kind voice cut through their foggy brain. Moonbow looked up at Moonwatcher and took her talon, hesitantly, to balance on the branch again. She then half helped them fly up, half carried them up onto the platform next to her while the last of the dragonets left the auditorium. “Headache,” Moonbow laughed meekly. “Sorry, I… didn’t really catch the assembly.” Moonwatcher tapped a talon on the woven platform beneath her. “I knew there should have been memos for the seers,” she said slowly. “I’ll catch you up, but it was the same stuff as last year. It’s just messier this year for the volunteers to pick up.” She spoke slowly and enunciate clearly, as if she knew all too well how an overwhelming vision felt. Obviously she would, she’s only Moonwatcher, they spitefully told themself. “Hmmm,” she hummed quietly. Their brain stung again, and they turned around, as if a presence was causing it. Low and behold, Peacemaker was standing behind them, tapping talons nervously together, keeping himself up with his wings. “S-sorry, but this is Moonbow, right?” he softly asked, casting a sympathetic gaze. Moonwatcher flinched. “Oh! Yes.” She took a few steps to look at the two of them better. “Moonbow, this is Peacemaker, of course. Peacemaker, this is Moonbow! The seer I was talking about with that second sight.” She leaned down to look Moon in the eyes. “If you’re comfortable sharing? Of course.” Moonbow curled their wings in tight and said, “I… I can’t really elaborate right now but… yep! That’s me, eheh….” Peacemaker tapped his talons together enthusiastically. “Fascinating!!! I’ve always wondered about NightWing powers… truly a gift! Or a curse in disguise, but I hope they serve you well.” He extended a talon. “I-I hope we’ll see each other at the Starlaying clearing.” Despite their throbbing head, Moonbow went to shake his talon. “We might! I’m considering it.” When their paw touched his scales they jerked, flashes of red appeared in their vision as the image of a twisted crown and a colossal dragon possessed their mind. They took their talon back and he looked worried. The images disappeared immediately but Moonbow’s pace quickened. “S-sorry, I’m really tired,” they stuttered, tapping their paws gently on the floor beneath them. Moonwatcher cut in. “I think I’ll send Moonbow home to mull it over,” she quickly said, excusing herself. “I’ll meet up with you this evening, Peacemaker!” “Sounds wonder - perfect to me, Ms. Moonwatcher! I hope to see you too, Moonbow.” His voice was laced with concern but Moon only got more nervous after hearing his voice. Moonwatcher mumbled something to Moonbow but they couldn’t quite hear. Their eyes were shut tight as she gently ushered them out of the garden and into the hallway. They glanced back. Peacemaker went to say something to Duke Handsome, Sir Deathbringer and Kinkajou had left a while ago. They wondered where they went. “Moonbow.” Moonwatcher’s talon tapped their shoulder again. “I’m sorry, I’m… exhausted,” Moonbow said, blinking, trying to widen their eyes to focus. She shook her head, “No, no, you had what I call a hypnagogic vision… I think. You’re drained, I believe you should go home and rest.” “Are you sure? I thought I needed to be filled in…?” Moonbow asked hesitantly, but the thought of going home to nap melted their tension just a bit for a moment. “It’s not that important,” Moonwatcher admitted. “As much as I hate to say, you can be summed up tomorrow. I’ll drop you off at home, Moonbow.” Moonbow opened their mouth to object, but even raising their head ever so gently caused the pain to flare up once again. They hissed and Moonwatcher gently directed them to move down the hallway. They noticed her pick up their school scrolls. Begrudgingly, they followed her. Before they knew it the rush of evening airbrushed through Moonbow’s fur and made them shutter. The glimmer of the sun setting on the horizon filtered ever so slightly through the trees, but it still made Moon squint. The quiet sound of nocturnal folk starting to stirring and something in Moonbow’s chest made them wish their eyes could stay open long enough to join them when the stars came out. “Do you think you could make the walk?” Moonwatcher asked. “I could carry you back.” Moonbow rubbed their eyes, shaking their head. “I can make it myself, I promise.” They tried taking a few steps, their head angled and pointed down, but they paused. They glanced at Moonwatcher falteringly. “It’s perfectly fine to let dragons help you, and I know it’s hard to accept when it’s offered.” She passed Moonbow back their school supplies and flapped her forearm wings a few times and gained enough air to carefully pluck Moonbow from the Palace School entrance platform with her hind talons. Moonbow lurched. They were used to being flown around the rainforest like this when some places were just too inconvenient or difficult to climb up to. But with the imagery in their head and their sore skull, the flight was much more awkward than it usually was. Though, it did save them the trouble of lumbering through strong smells and textures that would only upset their migraine. They landed carefully on a quiet edge of Paradise, on a path leading to the main housing road. “Thank you,” Moonbow grunted as Moonwatcher delicately dropped them a few inches from the ground. She stumbled a bit on her own landing, trying to get her footing gracefully, failing. They went to walk the rest of the way home themself when Moonwatcher spoke up, rather suddenly. “What did you see?” Moonbow turned around, blinking a few times. The images had started fading from their mind. It made their stomach churn to try and remember them. “Uh. Y-you. Or I heard you? And a scroll, and fire, and red…. There was some sort of crown, but distorted and just…” they trailed off. Moonwatcher stared at Moonbow for a few moments. She blinked when she realized the silence between them and shook her head. “It’s-It’s fine. I won’t make you remember. I just wanted to know if you… recognized anything.” “Did you?” Moonwatcher broke eye contact. Her face twisted in contemplation, but she didn’t answer them immediately. “I didn’t. B-Besides me. When I was younger. I was just worried for you.” Moonbow tapped their talons anxiously in the soil and disturbed pebbles resting in the ground. “I’ll see you tomorrow. At the Clearing.” Moonwatcher nodded. “Take care. Make sure to let me know how you’re doing tomorrow.” Moonbow waited until she started her accent back towards Queen Glory’s school. They turned and hastily made their way back to the leafy hut with elephant ear shaped plants protecting their belongings from the environment. They entered quietly, latching the door as they came inside. Their eyes caught dark fur and they looked up. “Mom?” The NightWing poked her head around the corner where the kitchen necessities were. “You’re home early,” Starhelm pointed out. “Everything okay?” “Uh! Yeah, Ms. Moonwatcher just says I should really get well rested before I volunteer tomorrow.” “You decided to do that after all?” Starhelm asked, taking a small porcelain cup and sipping its contents. “That’s good to hear! It’ll give you some supervision so you don’t keep breaking your wings in the middle of the rainforest where we wouldn’t know about it!” “Heheh, that only happened once and I only sprained it!” Their exclamation aggravated their skull and they winced. “I’ll… I’ll let you know everything else when I wake up. It’s just a nap, it’ll be quick.” “I’ll let Jay know you’ll be leaving early tomorrow,” she said with a nod. With a quick embrace, Starhelm pat Moonbow’s back gently and wished them a restful sleep. Moonbow eagerly went to their own room, curling up in their nest of blankets and the distant smell of dirt from their adventures getting messy in the woods on their own, and closed their eyes. The throbbing sensation teasing the idea of sleep to them. After what felt like hours, but was only probably a few moments, they fell out of consciousness. And for a moment, they thought they would have a restful night. Until they were dreaming. And their heart trembled the entire night as they watched the terrifying extension of their vision play out in their mind. They watched the figure of a massive dark dragon command white silhouettes fall limp to the ground. Despite all the dark red colors that burned into the back of their eyelids, they could have sworn they saw rainbow glitter hidden behind the spiral crown and tangled, mangled scroll. And behind the sadistic grin of the dragon in their dream, there was a softer, faintly familiar presence. That was just as scared as them, with their stomach in knots and a cold sweat. And then there was nothing but restless darkness for the rest of their night. They woke up with a start. They glanced at their window and with a shuddering breath sat up. Subtle light filtered through the panes. For a moment they thought it was still the evening. When they went to investigate, they noticed the sun rising from the right of their home. It was definitely morning. Moonbow shook their fur again, their nerves still tempted to tremble from their visions that night. Their stomach ached but their headache didn’t hurt as badly this morning. They heard the gentle chirping of birds outside, but their home felt still and silent. Their parents had to have still been asleep. They sighed, still tired, but too afraid of going back to sleep. They felt tempted to scavenge the kitchen for their stomach, but they didn’t feel like giving themself a worse stomach ache. Moon pranced out of the house, heading directly to the Starlaying Clearing. Mornings seemed untouched by NightWings and RainWings. NightWings liked falling asleep to the last of the glimmering stars and RainWings might stay up to lay themself out for the dawn’s sunlight, but sleep right through it’s rising. Aside from a few dragons who were unreasonably up late or early. Moonbow shook their head. “And now I’m one of them,” they realized, giggling to the otherwise quiet morning. They finally found their way to the Starlaying Clearing. They couldn’t help but get sidetracked, exploring a path they didn't recognize from the main Paradise village, but they eventually found their way towards the querencia where they heard the distant chatter of dragons. Moonbow slowly entered the clearing. Sunlight entered the clearing more freely, considering the trees parted and the sky shone through. Supposedly NightWings brought their eggs to this clearing after the reemergence of moonblessed powers. Queen Glory shut down leaving eggs out in the forest as soon as it came to her attention, so anymore it was a place of celebrating. Quickly repurposed by Peacemaker so dragons wouldn’t leave their eggs here while dragons stopped around feasting and partying. They didn’t realize they were sitting on the edge of the clearing gawking until a dragonet came flapping over, startling them out of their thoughts. Moonbow fluttered back, the sudden noise riling up their headache and they directed their stare to the bright blue and orange dragon romping up to them. She flapped a short scroll in their face and, despite Moonbow not being able to read it, they gasped. “Sapphire!” They flared their wings and brushed wings with hers, as she fluttered and reached out the scroll for Moonbow to take, seeing as she couldn’t stop vibrating for a second to hold it still. I didn’t realize I’d see you here! How are you, Moonbow? it read. Moonbow handed it back and beamed. “I’m exhausted! But excited! I’m so happy to see you! So you’re here to volunteer for the festival?” The hybrid quickly scribbled something in the scroll with a quill she summoned from behind her ear. She turned it around and it read, Me too! Mostly excited! Queen Glory was a little more vocal about it this year, I think we got an official assembly from Duke Handsome like your school! “I didn’t even know he could fly that far,” Moonbow snickered. Sapphire nodded. She wrote, He’s basically a thousand years old by now! I’m pretty sure he’s just a skeleton pretending to be a RainWing. A grin spread across her cheeks as Moonbow giggled at her joke. When they stopped giggling, Sapphire finally regained her composure to write, The actual activities don’t officially start until everyone shows up! Moonwatcher offered everyone eats breakfast until then. I know a really good fruit grove closeby! “Oh! Okay,” Moonbow said, wagging their stubby tail. “Lead the way! I’d love to get a chance to catch up with you when we get there!” She nodded, turning around and swiftly bounding off across the clearing, past a few dragons Moonbow recognized and didn’t recognize. Moonbow tried to keep pace, fluttering every so often to keep up with the speedy dragonet. Finally, she stopped, just long enough to leap off the ground to fly up to the boughs of a fruit orchard. Moonbow watched her elegantly land upwards on a tree. Following suit, they scrambled up the tree, hopping vertically to reach her level. By the time they made it up to her, she was already digging into a rotund mango, covering herself in its sticky juice. Moonbow themself hopped off the branches of the mango tree, exploring the other choices of fruit in the leaves. They settled on a lower leaning kiwi tree, picking a fuzzy fruit from a branch and biting it in half to expose the sweet green fruit on the inside. They bit a few more fruit from the trees before rejoining Sapphire, who had another message written down for them. They held it up to read as they started eating one of their kiwis. So you ended up volunteering afterall! Moonwatcher mentioned she wasn’t sure if you would be able to make it. She thought you might have dipped out sick! Moonbow swallowed. “Oh, that was just a spontaneous thing yesterday! I’m perfectly fine now,” they said unconvincingly. Sapphire gave them a suspicious look and Moonbow gave them a cheeky grin. At least we’ll see each other more often though! Just don’t actually get sick, it’d be a big bummer if you got to stay home and I had to work, she wrote to them, a teasing glint in her eyes. “Yeah!” Moonbow bit into another kiwi. With their mouth half full, they continued, “We’re practically neighbors - town-neighbors - but we hardly ever see each other! I’m surprised we haven’t run into each other very often.” Sapphire went to write but her talons started bleeding the paper with mango juice. She glanced at them and grinned in amusement, trying to wipe them on the tree bark beneath her. She then wrote, And I don’t wanna admit it, but my family hasn’t actually seen the Feast and Festival stuff yet! I kind of just seized this opportunity to sneak in for exclusive access. Moonbow nodded, wincing as their headache started to ache again. “It’s a legitimate way to go about it!” The sound of rustling got their attention. They looked up and saw a glittery NightWing marching through the undergrowth, head swinging quickly from side to side in search. Sapphire nudged Moonbow, giving them a look and a nod, and started waving at the NightWing. Moonbow only got what she meant moments later, and exclaimed “Oh!” “Hello? We’re up here!” they called out, waving similarly to Sapphire. The NightWing looked up, and Moonbow realized his freckles were rainbow in the light. It was Peacemaker again. He nervously grinned and he hopped through the shrubs to meet up with them in the orchard. He started flapping his wings and let a downward flap carry him a decent distance. But gravity slowly took its hold on him and he started to fall short, his smile fading quickly as a sense of panic seized him. “Peacemaker!” Moonbow exclaimed, reaching with a talon outstretched. He barely grabbed their paw. And then their migraine practically squeezed their skull. Their vision went red and they squeezed their eyes tight, nearly falling forward with Peacemaker’s weight. They nearly slipped, but could hardly keep themself up without jerking their talon back to clutch their temples. Sapphire squawked, the mangos she picked falling off her branch with splatters on the ground and her mini scroll and quill following them as she reached out to grab Peacemaker’s wrist, her tail curled around the mango tree branch for support. Moonbow, on the other hand, was trying to balance themself on the tree branch. The distorted visions of crowns, IceWing gore, and the cries of dragons Moonbow didn’t recognize panicked them. They didn’t want to open their eyes. “I-I’m so sorry! I-I-I didn’t realize I’d miss the branch like that, are-are you okay?” Moon peeked one eye open to look at the other NightWing hybrid, perched on the branch where Sapphire was. “Y-your friend chased after her scroll,” he said, pointing down at her with a flick of his tail. “That was entirely my bad, I hope you’re okay.” He started laughing. Maybe out of nerves, maybe because he was shaken, but he went on, starting to ramble, “I don’t want to be dramatic, but it’s like I’m a bad luck magnet lately!!! I must be sick or something, I can barely function!” Moonbow’s headache bit into their brain again. They tried saying but ended up loudly muttering, “It’s okay, I’m… just very nervous.” Peacemaker took a few breaths. “Yeah… me too.” Moonbow glanced at him, a little surprised. He noticed it and said, “I know, I know. Peacemaker! The founder of the Feast and Festival, nervous on his fifth…? time doing it? Wow…. Uh, yeah, you’re Moonbow, right?” “Yep...!” “Heheh, okay! Ha… it’s still kind of weird… like, a cultural icon and I’m still kind of a dragonet!” Moonbow grit their teeth and tried to continue the conversation. “Well, it is my first time volunteering so… if I can make it work, I’m sure you can do this a fifth time!” Peacemaker smiled. Moonbow could have sworn the pain receded in their head. Sapphire flapped back up to them, landing comfortably next to Peacemaker with her scroll unfurled. She held it out, and it read, I found it! Is it time to head back to the Clearing? Peacemaker straightened his posture as he read Sapphire’s message. “Ah! That’s right, Moonwatcher and I did roll call and we saw everyone who signed up here!” He started to stand. “You two ready to head back to clean?” He ended in a brighter, more singsong voice. Moonbow’s headache faded even more. Sapphire nodded and angled her wings. “Alright!” Moon fluttered their wings a few times, a burst of energy fueling them now that their headache smoothly faded with the high spirits around them. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Sapphire shot them a face, wrinkling her nose, and shoved herself off the tree branch, wings spread with her head glancing over her shoulder. Peacemaker snickered, hopping off and following her to participate in her game. And Moonbow leaped out of the tree boughs and promptly fell, crashing to the ground. When they heard the shocked worry of Peacemaker followed by uncontrollable giggles from Sapphire, Moonbow couldn’t help and start laughing at themself, as they scrambled to their feet and ran to catch up with them. The whole volunteering plan didn’t seem nearly as intimidating now. Category:Content (EnigmaTheHybrid) Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon) Category:Fanfictions (Completed) Category:Genre (Short Story)